Don’t get locked out of your email – add account recovery info now!
Updated 10/18/23 to include other accounts besides email.
You may have signed up for your email account long ago – before additional account recovery information was required. If you get locked out of your email account tomorrow, does your account have enough account recovery information to allow you to easily reset your password and get back into your account?
Account recovery information includes other methods to confirm your identity including:
- A mobile phone number that can receive a text message
- A secondary email address
- Account security questions – i.e. “your first pet’s name”
This year we’ve had several clients get permanently locked out of their AT&T/Yahoo email and other accounts because there wasn’t enough secondary verifiable information to convince the customer support representative to reset the password. Don’t let that happen to you. Log into your email account today – before a hacker does – to update your profile information with a cell phone number that can receive one-time-password verification text messages. Alternatively or additionally you could provide a secondary email address or setup account security questions/answers. If available, setup 2-Step Verification – sometimes called Multi-Factor Authentication – for even better protection.
Don’t forget to secure your other accounts
While you’re securing your email account, we also recommend securing your other accounts that could be accessed by hackers. Those accounts include:
- Wireless cell phone account and number
- Bank and brokerage accounts where funds could be transferred out by a scammer
- Social media accounts where someone could take over your identity to scam your friends and family
- Your Microsoft, Apple and/or Google accounts which are used to login to your computer or mobile device
To secure your accounts as mentioned above, once logged into one of your online accounts, look for a section called profile or security to make the changes and additions. Instructions for some common accounts include:
If you need help, contact us for a security checkup of all of your vulnerable online accounts.
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